What Do Superintendents Want?

At Bottom, It's Not So Different From What Most Americans Want

What do public school superintendents talk about when they get
together? In July, we had a chance to find out when about 60
practitioners of this beleaguered calling from all parts of the nation
gathered at Teachers College, Columbia University, for some R&R and
reflection on the parlous state of the schools they lead. San Francisco
and New York City and Omaha, Neb., and Richmond, Va., and Bemidji,
Minn., among others, all sat down together and swapped their stories.
And despite the group's striking diversity, a common theme emerged.

It's not easy being a public school superintendent these days, so
cataloguing the mutual problems was easy: lack of money, too many and
conflicting demands, public hostility, uncertain tenure. But
surprisingly, once these matters were acknowledged, they were not what
superintendents wanted to talk about. The problem that gripped their
attention was the decline of community in America--and the role of the
public schools in creating and sustaining that community.

Superintendents from all over the country lament a loss of social
cohesion. In too many places, they say, gone are the days when people
pulled together. Increasingly, superintendents deal with individuals
and special-interest groups who insist on immediate gratification of
their own wants and care little or nothing about the common good. The
problem is more acute in the cities, but it afflicts small towns and
villages as well. As people responsible for the educational welfare of
all children and families, and for the effective management of the
community's resources, superintendents find themselves buffeted from
all sides for doing the very thing they are hired to do--seeing the
situation whole and trying to achieve the greatest good for the
greatest number.

Perhaps some people won't lose a lot of sleep if public school
superintendents have a hard time. But maybe we ought to think about
what is happening in our society. Do we really want a country in which
it is everyone and every group for himself, herself, and itself? Can't
we see and feel how many people these days are searching for something
beyond self?

Nobody wants to retain the top-down bureaucracy of yesteryear. But neither do many Americans favor nature red in tooth and claw, with no kindness and concern for the less fortunate.

The education-reform movement in which much of America is now
involved emphasizes higher academic standards. The superintendents who
met at Teachers College this summer believe in higher standards (no
member of the group was in favor of lower standards). They are
committed to helping all children achieve these high standards, and
they know that they must make significant changes in school practice to
achieve this goal. But they also know, as the public does, that simply
raising standards is not enough. Unless students have access to the
curricula and the materials of instruction they need, and unless
teachers are given better training and support, the new standards will
not be reached and the schools will be charged with failure once
again.

And even more important, superintendents are concerned that setting
high standards will not by itself address the problem of creating the
community needed for attaining high standards. They worry about that
portion of the reform movement that would fragment or privatize the
public system. Don't be too quick to write this view off as
self-serving. Of course self-interest is involved. But superintendents
are also genuinely concerned about efforts that privilege one small
group or another at the expense of those less fortunate, and that harm
an institution that has provided much of the social glue for this
society throughout the past 150 years.

Nobody wants to retain the cumbersome, inefficient, top-down
bureaucracy of yesteryear. But neither do many Americans favor nature
red in tooth and claw, with no kindness and concern for the less
fortunate. Surely we can find a middle ground, one that opens the
system to creative initiative while still protecting the weak and
preserving a sense of general welfare. Of course we want individual
students to achieve to the very best of their ability. But we also want
to create a more wholesome community, both nationally and at the local
level.

This sample of America's superintendents, at least, wants that kind
of public system. As one participant in the conference said, they want
to return to the values expressed in the core documents of our
society--the preamble of the Constitution, the Declaration of
Independence, the Bill of Rights--and, consistent with those values, to
devise a new system of public schools for all the children of all the
people. They are committed to working toward that end. Anyone want to
help?

Thomas Sobol is the Christian A. Johnson professor of outstanding educational
practice at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City. From 1987 to
1995, he was the New York state commissioner of education.

Vol. 16, Issue 01, Page 60

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.